Step 11: We have light!

Now when I go camping I like to escape technology and just enjoy nature, however I often want light at night in my tent, who doesnt? With all your electronics at home and an outlet far from reach light is hard to find at night, so in this I will show you how I made a solar rechargeable light bulb using LEDs and common materials. Its eco friendly and fun! Ok now lets get started :)

Hi! You didn't mention the voltage of the solar panel along the mA <br> <br>thank yoU! <br>marC:)

Hmm I cant really remember the current. I used to 5 volt panels in parallel to get more current. The battery i used is rated at 300 mah (i think, cant remeber for sure). It takes around 8 hours to fully charge. I will try to measure it soon and get back to you :)

On the negative wire from the solar panel,it then is attached to a resistor and then marked positive at the end of the wire. Is that on purpose or does the resistor create an opposite charge?

the schematic is a bit clustered. I got confused for a second too and I made it lol

Nevermind I messed up while looking at it.

Ha Ha Ha Ha! Very good. There are automatic charge / automatic on at dusk pcb's that come with commercially made garden lamps that I save when ever I run across them. With the addition of one of these boards and a switch to turn onn and off, charging your batteries would no longer be manual.<br> <br> This particular board is well marked on the foil side to serve my bad memory ~

now thats a neat idea! I looked at the pictures and I can see a LDR and a switching transistor. To my knowledge those two componets are what causes the battery to charge and the lights turn on. when the batteries charge the ldr isactivated and once night time rolls in the light turns on (ldr deactivated). I could posibly make a similar circuit. there are a few componets on that board that Im not sure do, but thanks for the share! it helped a lot.

Picture on the left has a slide switch for turning LED's on HighPower that lasts 5 hours and low power that lasts 10 hours with the batteries supplied. 3 volts. I have taken the battery box and rewired it to produce 6 volts to play a radio for the last week with no sign of losing voltage. The last is a picture of one of those cans from the top of a street light that turns the lamp on and off. Good for 105 to 305 volts and still works !

I like the radio idea :) That sounds very cool. That one picture is a street light circuit? How did you get that lol That would be fun to have <br>

Power Company took down one of the street lights and left it lay on the curb. When they took off I moved in because I knew what that thing was and I wanted it. <br>If I had ah car I would have gotten the whole thing!

A SPDT switch would work. Just connect the cathodes of the LEDs to the negative terminals of both the battery and the solar panel.

You are right, I guess I over looked that. I must have thought switching both + and - was the only way. It works tho :p. thanks for your feed back :)